Making a UXM Constructed Team From Scratch: Part 1

Hey guys! If youíve been coming here for a while, youíre familiar with my adventures going through my local AvX 6-month OP. If youíre new, you can go back through the archives and find those event reviews and results. Hereís a few of my favorites:AvX Month 3, andUXM Rainbow Draft (Part 1).

My love of Hulk Green Goliath was born out of wanting to beat the popular meta of that time, which involved Black Widow Tsarina, Beast Mutate #666, and Human Torch Johnny Storm on just about every single team. Green Goblin Gobby was also popular, as well as Storm Wind Rider. Iím a punk at heart, and try to stick it to the man every chance I get. Whether that be graffiti-ing public property (which may or may not have happened prior to having children of my own) or rooting against the larger-than-life evil empire that is the New York Yankees, or simply finding a way to topple the popular meta in gaming, Iím an iconoclast. Iíd rather lose trying to break the mold of what a ďwinning teamĒ should look like, than conform and bring yet another Tsarina/#666/Johnny Storm team to an event, and just hope I play it better than everyone else.
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There is an upcoming UXM event, where I will need a constructed team using only UXM characters and actions. If my Hulk team was born out of my rebellious nature to smash the popular meta, that what does that same rebellious nature feel the need to defeat this time?

So what IS popular in an UXM exclusive team? Well, Mister Sinister Nasty Boy seems to be a go-to, combined with Iron Man and his global. Any of the Pyros work well with that team, but I think his common, Saint John Allyourdice, works the best. Cyclops Field Leader can also greatly enhance this team. This teamís biggest issue will be getting Mister Sinister out early, since he is a 5-cost, but if thereís room for PXG on that team, then Sinister could see the field as early as turn 3.

Another popular team is the Flying Sidekick/Super Pawn. This build works better using both AvX and UXM, but is still very possible. Professor X Trainer gives Sidekicks +1A/+1D AND has the global to keep cycling the sidekick dice to the prep area. Falcon can make Sidekicks unblockable, and Angel can give them an additional +1A/+1D as well. The best part about this in UXM is that all of the best counters for it are in AvX.

The uncommon She-Hulk is sky rocketing in popularity. Our own Dave has been touting his love for her lately combined with the global on Relentless and the rare Black Panther. Making characters unable to block is mighty handy. X-23 may find a place on to this team as well with her high attack and low purchase cost.

I think that covers it pretty well. 3 popular teams/combos to look out for: the Nasty Boy Villains team, the Super Sidekicks team, and the Relentless based you-canít-block-me team. Obviously your own local meta will be different. Even for myself, this is only my guess based on what Iíve seen online. So now, letís select our team based on what each of these teams are vulnerable to.

<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Weapon of Choice[/b]
Now, it's time to select our team. The first thing that comes to mind is Imprisoned. It can shut down the Sidekick team if timed well. It can also capture the Pyros on the Nasty Boy team, which are a pretty important part. If the Relentless team is using Psylocke or Kitty Pryde for the mask energy or the common Ant-Man for the extra fist energy, all of those are easy to capture if they see they field. So, Imprisoned is a good action. But that doesnít really answer what characters I should bring.

One way to counter a Nasty Boy team is to bring your own Nasty Boy. That way, your opponent will damage himself for every villain knocked out as well. You donít have to load up on Villains and have that be the focal point of your team for Nasty Boy to be effective. You can simply let your opponent bring the Villains and Iron Man with the global.

The Relentless team we mentioned earlier seems to rely on a lot of fist characters (She-Hulk, Black Panther, X-23, even the common Ant-Man for an early game ramp). The super rare Emma Frost could be a good answer for the onslaught of fist attackers. I know since the team revolves around making characters unable to block, bringing a blocker isnít perfect. So you might have to just bring more blockers than they will have energy for. #1 candidate: Kitty Pryde Ariel. 2 cost, no ability. The key here is that sheís an X-Man. That makes her the perfect target for Cerebro Cybernetic Intelligence. Buy up your Kitty Prydeís, get Cerebro on her, and NEVER be afraid to send her to her death or block with her. You want her coming and going from the field as much as possible, so sheís knocking out opposing characters, getting rid of those She-Hulks and Black Panthers that are waiting in the field for a chance to attack unblocked.

Toad is a good answer to the Super Sidekick team, forcing characters to attack before they are ready to rush as an overbearing force. I prefer his rare, Mortimer Toynbee. You can pick any character to attack, even Sidekicks, and costs 1 less to purchase than his common. Thereís such a big difference to 4 and 5 cost. If you really need to buy a Toad, and pull the inevitable 4 sidekick die roll midway through the game, you can still buy him. Worst case scenario, you will always be rolling enough dice to buy him. I like that.

Because Iím a fan of Hulk, letís take a look at Red Hulk aka Rulk real quick. I know heís expensive. But running in to an opponent with PXG is pretty likely, and we havenít totally ruled out the possibility for us including him ourselves yet either. Rulk deals 1 damage to your opponent for every sidekick that is knocked out. On his burst (levels 1 and 2) if Rulk is the one to KO the Sidekick, he does an additional 2 damage to your opponent. I like him. In addition to the ability, heís got some monster stats. Thatís perfect for going against that Super Sidekick team. Force a sidekick to attack with Toad, knock it out with Rulk to do 3 damage to the opposing player. That paints such a fun image in my mind. So letís add Rulk to the list.

That leaves us 2 character slots and one more basic action. If we have Toad to make people attack, it might not be a bad idea to bring Namor Atlantean. Our 2 cost Kitty Pryde could get hit pretty hard by Cerebro Supercomputer, and if we are bringing Imprisoned, we donít want that turned on us. Namor can cancel an action die when he blocks AND we have a way to make characters attack. So letís put him on the team, just in case.

Looking over the basic actions, if Rulk gets in the field, Reckless Melee could be a game changer to knock out a few sidekicks. Letís try it.

Our purchase cost curve is pretty high. 1 character at 2 cost, 2 at 4, 3 at 5 (one of those being Cerebro) and 1 at 7. I say we bring the PXG to ensure we have it to get any of our 5 cost needs purchased on turn 2. So, the team looks like this: I'm naming it the UXM Response Team.

Keep in mind that the strategy and purchase order will change game-to-game based on what my opponent has. One game might see me race to get my Nasty Boy out in the field before my opponent starts littering the field with Villains. Another time I could buy my Kitty Prydes and Cerebro at first chance to keep She-Hulk from getting through. And another game could see me pick up Toad on my first turn to keep my opponent from stacking his Sidekick-buffs on his backline.

I know, I know, this looks like such a rag-tag group. But I really think this has some decent answers for whatever comes at you, and some potential for some lethal direct damage of its own.I will test this team out and let you guys know next week what changes are made before the UXM Constructed event. If any of you are interested in helping me test this team out, Iíd love for you to get involved. I am willing to play a few games over Google Hangouts to fine tune this team. My only request is that you use one of the 3 team builds mentioned above so I can see if Iíve prepared accordingly. Leave a comment in the section below or get at me on twitter, @RLRtheSecond, and we will set something up. Hope to hear from you guys. Roll on!

Comments

Jared Wood imported
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02-01-2015 03:44 AM

I understand your concern for countering popular strategies, but I think you're missing an important point: What's your win condition? How are you going to win the game? With your current team, your win conditions are Imprisoned and having enough characters in the field to deal lethal damage or you're going to try and ramp up to Red Hulk and then hope your opponent can't effectively answer it. Neither one are clear strategies that you're going to go for.

I have two suggestions for win conditions that you could add while still running answers for popular strategies. One would be Namor - The Sub-Mariner. Regardless of what characters you purchase to counter your opponent, Namor will always be able to become unblockable and deal reliable damage. It means you won't be able to run Atlantean, but Cerebro - Supercomputer is easily beat by spreading out your purchases and not going all in on one specific character. As for Imprisoned, assuming your opponent doesn't use it on the turn they plan to deal lethal damage, you're relying on Toad and Namor to counter it - and more than likely, you've only purchased one that hasn't been imprisoned, if not both. It won't work as a viable counter, I feel.

The other would be to run Ant-Man (his Uncommon or Rare) and Iceman - Mister Friese. After you field an Iceman but before you field another character, flip his stats with Ant-Man's global. Once you field another character, you now have a 7 or 9 attack character. You can use Imprisoned to set up a one turn kill or run Relentless to push damage in this way yourself.

Just some musings on your current set-up.

Randy imported
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02-01-2015 08:01 AM

I really like Ant-Man, and running Iceman and Magic with him. If I need to free up some space for them, Namor and Professor are my first to go.

I agree about the lack of reliable win condition. But I wanted this team to be rooted in being able to respond to other teams, and not really have a clear cut agenda of its own. I don't claim to know everything about Dice Masters, so I welcome comments and input from other players. That's the main reason I do articles like this as 2-parters. Other sites just show you a team roster and tell you how great it is. I want mine to be something different. I give you the thought process behind some of the characters, then get back with you to tell how good or bad it really is, and how it can improve.

Back to your comment, and it is a concern. But I basically want to see the lack of win condition first hand during game play with this team before I address it. I'd rather form 2/3 of a plan, and see what I'm missing, than put together a full game plan, have it fail, and not know where things went wrong.

As always, thanks for the comment. I will be looking back at this if/when we address the lack of finishing power.